The quality of retirement homes really does vary from town to town and across the country. A great deal get money from the government to survive, although their are many privately funded homes also. I report last year from The Care Trust however found that the quality of government-run retirement homes was not good enough and suggested that something was done to bring them up the standard of most of the private homes.
Very recently the government has announced that they will increase their budget on retirement homes by 10% over the next 5 years. The money will be spent on getting new white furniture into the homes and improving the overall interior design and decorations to both modernise and brighten up the buildings.
A Care Trust representative, Alister Pride was keen to point out the retirement homes they visited were clean and tidy. “Overall the standard of hygiene and cleanliness was very good” stated Pride. “We just felt the many homes had not kept up with the times and the décor was very drab”.Everybody has the right to live in a nice environment and seeing as people in these homes cannot make the changes themselves, people have to take the initiative. He continued to say that they were very happy that the government had listened to their recommendations and they look forward to seeing the improvements.
The way the government has decided to tackle the problem is by creating specialist teams of designers and decorators to visit the homes. “The money could have been handed over to homes directly, but this way we can have experts on the case and improving with each project” suggested a government spokesman. The specialist teams will visit the retirement homes in person over a 5 year time period and implement new furniture such as dining furniture. They will also be implementing colour schemes into the buildings and replacing old and decrepit items with new pieces like white wardrobes and dining chairs.
